Federal prosecutors say tax season went off the rails for one Cleveland preparer this year. Sherita Booker, a local tax preparer, was arrested and charged after authorities alleged she prepared and filed false income tax returns for clients and juiced their refunds with made-up numbers.
A criminal complaint filed earlier this month accuses Booker of inflating refunds by tacking on bogus business paperwork and claiming credits for people who did not actually own the businesses in question. Prosecutors say the conduct stretched into this year’s filing season and was serious enough to trigger an IRS Criminal Investigation review of returns filed under her preparer identification number.
Court filings and an affidavit indicate Booker filed 119 returns in 2026 using her preparer tax identification number, seeking roughly $729,884 in refunds, and that she kept preparing returns this year, according to WKYC. The complaint says she routinely attached fraudulent Schedule C business forms to clients’ Form 1040s to create losses or expenses out of thin air and sometimes claimed fuel credits as another way to shrink taxable income. Federal prosecutors say those entries either pumped up refunds or helped hide taxes the clients would have owed.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio is leading the case, and local reporting notes Booker learned return preparation while working for a national tax firm from about 2016 to 2017 before launching tax businesses under multiple names, according to WOIO. That reporting also states the investigation grew out of an IRS Criminal Investigation probe and that the complaint was filed in federal court in Cleveland.
Undercover appointment and alleged bogus paperwork
Federal court records say an IRS special agent booked an undercover tax-prep appointment at Booker’s home in 2023. According to the complaint, Booker then filed a return for the agent that included fraudulent documents claiming the agent owned a business reporting a net loss of $3,707. Prosecutors point to that undercover example, along with other returns, as evidence that the allegedly fake business paperwork followed a repeated pattern, according to WKYC. Investigators also allege Booker filed returns under different business names, which they say helped conceal the scheme.
Federal charges and penalties
Booker is charged by criminal complaint with aiding or assisting in the preparation of false and fraudulent federal income tax returns, a crime that in similar federal cases can carry up to three years in prison along with significant fines. Department of Justice press releases in comparable prosecutions report that violations of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(2) have a statutory maximum of about three years in prison, according to prior reporting from the DOJ Colorado office. The Northern District of Ohio has also brought tax-preparer cases in Cleveland before, as reflected in past releases from the DOJ Northern District of Ohio. For now, the complaint remains only an allegation, and prosecutors will have to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt in court.
What’s next
The complaint was filed on April 9, and Booker’s case is now moving into the federal court process in Cleveland, where initial hearings and any arraignment or detention decisions will occur, according to local reporting. Prosecutors could broaden the probe as they examine additional returns and financial records, and the IRS Criminal Investigation team that launched the inquiry remains involved, per WOIO. As with any criminal case, Booker is presumed innocent unless and until she is proven guilty.
Federal authorities have brought a string of high-profile tax-preparer prosecutions in recent years, some ending with lengthy prison terms in schemes that generated millions in false refunds. The IRS Criminal Investigation unit and federal prosecutors have repeatedly urged taxpayers to vet preparer credentials carefully and to read every return closely before signing on the dotted line.
